Whitney Kisling, Bloomberg

The largest U.S. companies are beating the average stock in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index by the most in more than a decade, fueled by rising dividends, valuations 31 percent below the historical average and fear.

The New York Stock Exchange’s plan to lure more stock orders from individuals was approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, dealing a setback to Wall Street firms that increasingly keep the business for themselves.

Knight Capital Group Inc. has “all hands on deck” and is in close contact with creditors, clients and counterparties as it tries to weather trading errors that cost it $440 million, Chief Executive Officer Thomas Joyce said.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index’s record rally probably has another year to go as investors give up their pessimism and buy, according to Laszlo Birinyi, one of the first money managers to tell clients to buy before the bull market began.